


Seven Minutes In Heaven

by kissontheneck



Category: American Idol RPF
Genre: Cookleta, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-03-29
Updated: 2009-03-29
Packaged: 2017-10-05 16:19:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kissontheneck/pseuds/kissontheneck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Apparently, Michael Johns is 30 going on 12.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seven Minutes In Heaven

**Author's Note:**

> Written for **clionona** (LJ) according to a photo prompt she offered of a table full of martini glasses and empty liquor bottles. Ha ha!

It started out that David just went to the kitchen to put his glass in the sink, that was it. But as he stood there, his head pounding from the noise in the other room, he realized it was sort of peaceful in the kitchen, and it was cooler and not as bright. His hands lingered on the edge of the steel basin as it was cool to the touch and he was tempted to bend over and rest his forehead on it. But then he thought that that would be the exact moment someone would walk in on him and he felt embarrassed just thinking about it. Instead, he spent an unnecessarily long time rinsing his glass, before finally taking up the bottle of dish soap on the counter and squirting too much of it into his glass. _Oops_, he thought. _Well, I'll just wash these other glasses in here too_. Which he did. But then he noted the beer bottles everywhere, so he then decided to start collecting them in a bag. By the time Stacy walked in behind him, he was wiping down the counters.

"David, what are you doing?" she asked him, gently laughing.

"Oh, I just... sorry."

"Hey, don't apologize for cleaning my kitchen," she chuckled, crossing her arms. "Though you shouldn't be, and the boys are wondering where you've gone off to."

"Oh, I just... it's quiet in here and I just needed a break."

"Understandable." She smiled at him. "It's not really your scene, I know. However, the boys are trying to organize a game though and they wanted you--"

"Stace, did you find him? I bet he slipped out -- There you are, Archie!" Michael's reddened face carried a broadening smile and he made his way to David and hung his arms around him. "We thought you escaped, kid. Come on, everybody's waiting for you."

"Oh gosh," David uttered as he was pulled unceremoniously behind Michael and back into the living room, Stacy laughing as she followed.

"Okay," Michael announced, having to shout over the drunken laughter of the party. "I need everyone to sit in a circle on the floor. And Carly, hand me that beer bottle, would you?" Michael pushed David gently in the middle of his back to get him to go do as he'd just been instructed. Panicking, the first "safe" person his eyes fell upon was Brooke, and he found his way next to her on the floor. She draped her arm over his shoulders and pulled him close to her in a side hug.

"How's it going, kiddo?" she asked, rubbing his arm.

"Okay," David replied lamely. He dipped his head onto her shoulder and she dropped her chin on top of his.

"Now," Michael went on, still shouting. "What we're going to do is -- damn it, Cook, stop fondling Jace's hair and pay attention to me, would you?"

Cook wore an exaggerated expression of shock, dropped the locks he'd been examining on Jason's head and stood like a deer caught in headlights.

"Sit your ass down," Michael said pointedly to the two of them. He swayed slightly before continuing. He held up the bottle Carly had handed him and said, "Spin the bottle. We all know it, right?"

Half the room groaned and half the room laughed. Cook burst into delirious giggles.

"Archie, what about you?" Michael asked, pointing the bottle at him. "Familiar?"

David was horrified. The Johns' living room was filled with all of his friends, people who were practically his family. And he was, in fact, familiar with the game, making him incredibly uncomfortable. He squirmed beneath Brooke's embrace and nodded lamely.

"Okay," Michael went on, stepping into the circle they had formed and placing the bottle down in the center. "Seven minutes in Heaven for the unfortunate souls who get stuck together..."

Again, more groaning. David looked up at Brooke with wide eyes. He had no idea what Michael was talking about.

"Seven minutes in the closet together," Brooke whispered to him. David swallowed hard. Was she serious? He might as well have been sitting in a circle with his _sisters_ now for how horrifying that sounded.

"Don't worry," Brooke whispered, "no one ever really does anything. You just muck about and everyone will make lame jokes and it's just for fun. You'll be fine."

"You have another one of your John Hughes movie weekends again, Johns?" Cook spouted. "Or have you officially digressed to a twelve-year-old?"

"For _that_, Cook," Michael replied, giving Cook a mischievous look, "you get to go first."

"Well, I wanted to go first anyway," Cook said, obviously lying. "Lemme at it."

Michael moved out of the way and Cook leaned forward into the circle, took up the bottle and plunked it uneasily in front of him. With some effort, he managed to spin the bottle in one, lame revolution, it stopping to point directly at its spinner. Michael burst into laughter.

Cook got uneasily to his feet and slurred, "Yes! Cutest guy in the room! By the way, I'm not gonna need that whole seven minutes..." He started for the coat closet in the adjoining hallway, unbuckling his belt along the way.

Giggles exploded across the room and David felt his cheeks heat up. He should have run when he had the chance.

"No, Davey, come on now!" Michael laughed, pointing. "Do it again properly!"

Cook feigned disappointment as he dropped to his knees and took hold of the bottle again. This time he spun it so hard that it took an agonizingly long time for the bottle to stop wobbling. But when it did, there was a collective gasp before the room got very quiet. David didn't really realize what had happened until he became suddenly aware that every single person in the room... was looking at _him_.

Cook grinned, again taking some effort to stand up a second time. He put out his hand and winked at David. "Come on, Archie, let's give 'em something to talk about."

David didn't know how he made it to his feet -- it must have been Brooke pushing him into a standing position. He could feel every single eye in the room on his body as he sort of helplessly followed Cook across the room, Michael right behind them.

"Oh, gosh, I don't... this is..." David didn't know what to do. Brooke had said it was all just a mockery, right? Even so, it was him and Cook, not him and one of the girls, which at least wouldn't have been so... uncomfortable. Not that he really wanted to be in that situation either.

"Shush, Archie," Michael said, fiddling with the timer on his watch. "Okay, your seven minutes starts... _now_." And he shoved the two Davids into the hallway closet, clapping the door closed behind them.

It was completely dark, and really tight. Michael seemed to have an entire wardrobe of jackets, about half of them leather, making it smell strongly like one of those "all things leather" shops in the mall. Suddenly, he felt the unmistakable pressure of his companion's boot on his toes and an elbow in his ribcage.

"Oof, sorry Archie... is this the smallest closet in the world, or what?"

David could not even speak. There was an air of alcohol now, as it was emanating from Cook and David sort of felt like he was suffocating. He hoped desperately that at least five minutes had passed by now, though he knew it was more like ten seconds. And for some reason that he could not even begin to understand, his heart was beating in the same way that it did when he saw that girl who sat next to him in his math class last year. But somehow he knew that if it had been Brooke, or Syesha, or Carly or Michael fucking Johns himself, he would not have the same feeling as he did right then. He didn't really have time to contemplate this any further though, for Cook suddenly fell against him in unbalance.

"Whoa, you okay? You are _drunk_, David." David's throat was dry and his voice uneven.

"And you," Cook replied, poking his left index finger into David's shoulder, "are _not_. So I ask you, who's the one who's being completely out of character right now, you or me?"

"Dave, maybe... maybe you should sit down and rest a little while. Are you sure you're okay? Let me take you home."

Inexplicably, Cook burst into laughter. LOUD laughter. Loud enough that the dull roar from the other room seemed to lull for a moment.

"Hey," Cook said, straightening up, "I don't put out on the first date, buddy. You're gonna have to... show me a good time first."

David found himself looking up at the ceiling, though really, it was so dark in the closet that he couldn't see anything at all. Even so, he could _feel_ Cook near him, feel his hot, alcohol-laden breath on his face. Again, David's heart fluttered, and something inside him swirled, making David think he might faint at any moment.

"Let's fuck with 'em," Cook said suddenly, and allowed himself to pull away from David and lean into the closet door. David jumped when Cook suddenly started banging out a rhythm on the door before shouting, "Oh, fuck Archie! Fuck, where did you learn to do _that_? I knew all those rumors about Mormon boys were _true_. Unnngg, fuck _yes_!" To David's complete horror, this went on for an eternity, or at least it seemed like it, before Cook made a prolonged wailing sound that might as well have indicated that he was _exploding_ or something. All David could hear after that was Cook's heavy breathing, as he had gotten himself all worked up during his little act. The living room, however, was _dead silent_. David now felt like he'd rather _not_ ever leave the Johns' closet, and wondered if he could manage to get a keyboard in there.

Carly's voice broke the silence. "Wow, Cook, two minutes! I think that's a record!" The room burst into noisy laughter and chattering again. Cook was laughing hysterically again. David wanted to die.

"Oh man," Cook breathed, "that sort of got me worked up, what about you?"

David had no idea what Cook meant. At this point he just wanted to lean back into Michael's jackets, close his eyes and wait out this nerve-wrecking experience. Unfortuntately, he felt hands on his waist, and a body pressing against his, and... _oh my gosh_, Cook had not been kidding about being "worked up".

"So," Cook slurred, swaying, and sounding like a drunk trying to pick someone up at a bar. "What are _you_ doing for the next five minutes?"

_Dying_, David thought to himself. _I hope I die anytime now._ More silence pierced the air.

"Hey, you okay, kiddo?" Cook's voice had changed, there wasn't a smile in it anymore, and he was serious. "We don't really have to stay in here," he said. "It's just a stupid thing..."

Only breathing hung between them for probably an entire minute. David's defense mechanism had seemed to kick in by choosing to completely shut down his entire body. No talking, no moving, no _nothing_.

"David?"

"I'm... I'm okay," David managed to spit out. "Just... it's hot in here."

"Yeah." Cook's hands had not moved from David's waist. "David, your heart's racing, I can feel it through your entire body."

David gulped. "Yeah, I--"

"Are you... nervous, Davey?" Cook's voice seemed knowing, and David felt he didn't actually have to answer that to let Cook know that he had indeed been squeamishly nervous since the moment they had been shoved into the closet by Michael.

There was a tapping on the door, and Michael's voice announced, "One minute boys, wrap it up. And Cook -- I'll send you my dry cleaning bill later."

David could somehow _hear_ Cook smile, and while he was distracted by that thought, lips suddenly met his -- well, almost, anyway -- as they fumbled through the dark and landed half on his mouth and half on his cheek. Cook laughed before taking David's face in his hands and using his thumbs to find David's lips.

"Sorry," he said, and he gently lowered his head and kissed David properly, holding his lips there for a good fifteen seconds before David found his own lips pressing back against his will. Cook's lips parted slightly as he breathed in deeply before ending with a quick peck.

David wished he could see Cook's face. He wanted to judge just how seriously he should be taking this, because if he did not know how to act before, he definitely didn't now. Especially since now, he didn't feel as nervous. Now he felt... was it elation? But he didn't want to jump to anything serious with a guy who was drunk off his ass. Later Cook would probably laugh the whole thing off, he figured, so instead he kept quiet.

"Time's up!" Michael announced, and Cook dropped his hands from David and straightened up just in time for Michael to fling open the door -- and for Cook to look up too suddenly, causing him to waver and fall face-forward into Michael's arms.

"Whoa, Archie, what'd you _do_ to him?" Michael laughed. "You broke him."

David just blushed and watched Michael put Cook back upright and then help him back to the living room, guiding him to sit on the couch instead of the floor. As soon as his head hit the back of the couch, Cook's eyes fell shut and his head slumped to the side. David, however, nearly got a standing ovation as he tried to make his way back into the circle, and his cheeks flushed crimson as he dropped into the sanctity of Brooke's aura. She was smiling down at him, her arm across his shoulders again.

"See, just a bunch of goofing around," she assured him, rubbing his shoulder. "I knew you'd survive."

"Brooke?" David whispered. Brooke had to lean close in to hear him, as his words were lost in the white noise of the room.

"Yes, honey?"

"I... I had my first kiss." He decided to leave out the detail that it was sloppy and laced with alcohol.

Brooke's eyes went wide and she clapped her free hand over her mouth. She glanced around, but no one was looking at either of them anymore. Some new mayhem and broken out between Syesha, Jason and Stacy, and David was thankful the eyes were finally off of him.

"Sweetie, really?"

"Mhmm." David bit his lip as he nodded.

"Oh, that's wonderful," Brooke cooed, pulling him close to her. "That's amazing."

"Yeah," David said into her shoulder. "Yeah, it was."


End file.
